SPA VR for Oculus Rift

shutyertrap

shutyertrap

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Staff member
Mar 14, 2012
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blindpeser said:
Yeah, no PR from Oculus, Stern amd Farsight at all. If it IS good, it seems to be our job to push it.

FX2 VR is the only game I am playing on my Rift. I stopped to play FP, have to try the new physics though.
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Not entirely true. There was just a Twitch video last week with Dead Flip revealing the Oculus VR version.


Let's face it, Zen has stolen the spotlight in a major way as the release of Whoa Nellie and Big Buck Hunter also barely registered a peep from people. If you follow Pinball Arcade on Twitter, you'd have seen these notices of release.
 
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Narc0lep5y

Member
Feb 21, 2015
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Bad PR coordination is not Zen's doing though. If anything, the way Zen's PR works shows another reason why Scientific moved the license.

Bottom line is that FS is launching their first Oculus Rift VR title in 1 day and there is next to nothing out there. IMO, From a PR stand point, at minimum SPAVR should have

1) presence in the Oculus store (coming soon/pre order/some of that exclusivity leverage)
2) An SPAVRPC trailer/announcement video/gameplay video. At least one, but all is better. Having the Twitch stream kind of applies here but not fully.
3) VR gaming sites presence
4) Virtual pinball site presence
5) PC gaming/Video gaming sites presence.

There's not much, if any of those right now. Even on this thread, the announcement is on page 2 of a thread started in March 2018. It's sad to see for something that should be bigger than what it currently is.
 
shutyertrap

shutyertrap

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Staff member
Mar 14, 2012
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Narc0lep5y said:
Bad PR coordination is not Zen's doing though. If anything, the way Zen's PR works shows another reason why Scientific moved the license.

Bottom line is that FS is launching their first Oculus Rift VR title in 1 day and there is next to nothing out there. IMO, From a PR stand point, at minimum SPAVR should have

1) presence in the Oculus store (coming soon/pre order/some of that exclusivity leverage)
2) An SPAVRPC trailer/announcement video/gameplay video. At least one, but all is better. Having the Twitch stream kind of applies here but not fully.
3) VR gaming sites presence
4) Virtual pinball site presence
5) PC gaming/Video gaming sites presence.

There's not much, if any of those right now. Even on this thread, the announcement is on page 2 of a thread started in March 2018. It's sad to see for something that should be bigger than what it currently is.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to disagree with you. I will say that FarSight doesn't exactly have a dedicated PR department like Zen does. They have maybe one guy, and he has other jobs at the studio too. I'm just saying this release is just like every other FarSight release in terms of promotion, it's just being completely eclipsed by everything Zen has been doing for the past 6 weeks. A lot of hype does come from the forum, but the number of people here that actually have VR is tiny in comparison. Probably fewer than those with a dedicated virtual cabinet. So if they're not making noise in the forum, and it's not on anyone else's radar, it's gonna be rather silent.

Shoot, I had to go over to a friend's house a 1/2 hour away just to sample the VR so I could have some skin in the game when I talk to Mike!
 
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Pod

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Aug 10, 2012
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Given its an exclusive maybe it'll be front page on Oculus' store? VR users tend to check both O's store and Steams store quite regularly so I suspect most people would see it in some form if so.
 
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blindpeser

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Nov 20, 2016
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Narc0lep5y said:
Bad PR coordination is not Zen's doing though. If anything, the way Zen's PR works shows another reason why Scientific moved the license.

Bottom line is that FS is launching their first Oculus Rift VR title in 1 day and there is next to nothing out there. IMO, From a PR stand point, at minimum SPAVR should have

1) presence in the Oculus store (coming soon/pre order/some of that exclusivity leverage)
2) An SPAVRPC trailer/announcement video/gameplay video. At least one, but all is better. Having the Twitch stream kind of applies here but not fully.
3) VR gaming sites presence
4) Virtual pinball site presence
5) PC gaming/Video gaming sites presence.

There's not much, if any of those right now. Even on this thread, the announcement is on page 2 of a thread started in March 2018. It's sad to see for something that should be bigger than what it currently is.
Click to expand...

Thats what I am talking about. The Stern license seems to be Farsights main license at the moment. So I guess this thing is meant to put some cash into the register. It seems like Farsight put a lot of effort into the VR version. So they need to advertise it a bit better. Yes, I saw the anouncement for the user preview on twitch. I watched parts of this preview and even found the anouncement on sterns page. But is this really the PR that this game (or any other game) deserves? It has never been cheaper to get attention. There should be at least a flashy 1-2 min trailer that tells us the key features (and differences to other SPA versions) and lets us know (think) that this is the best game ever made and that all of us need it. If it is good, it really could be the best digital pinball experience.

If Farsight doesnt have enough man power for appropiate PR, they could talk to Stern, Oculus or someone else. I bet they lose more money when they do nothing instead.

@ shutyertrap: Do you recognize how Stern is creating a hype on each of the tables they release? I dont say that Farsight has to act the same way. But they could catch some of the ideas and do anything.
 
shutyertrap

shutyertrap

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Mar 14, 2012
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blindpeser said:
@ shutyertrap: Do you recognize how Stern is creating a hype on each of the tables they release? I dont say that Farsight has to act the same way. But they could catch some of the ideas and do anything.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree, it's not hard in this day and age to create hype. But look at FarSight's track record, have they ever built up hype? When they did Kickstarters (please oh please never do one again) other than making the initial announcement, did they ever go out of their way to promote during the campaign? Any table release they've done, the brief video they'd do would only come out a few days prior to release, the rest of the hype was from this forum. Actually FarSight's campaign strategy was to hint at a table, let us foam at the mouth for a few weeks waiting on verification that we got it right on the first guess, and then everybody being excited for the remaining 2 weeks. They didn't release World Champion Soccer when it would have made the most sense, during World Cup. They didn't release Doctor Who when a new season premiered. I don't think they have ever taken advantage of riding the wave of synergistic hype. The only thing recently they have gone above and beyond to promote was the sale of tables prior to June 30th, and most of that hype was done by Arcooda and our BlahCade Pinball Podcast.

Look, Zen is putting on a master class on how to prime its customers for an imminent release. This forum has been buzzing in a way it hasn't in a very long time. As much as I'd like FarSight to learn a lesson or two, I also think they are stuck in their ways. We love them for what they are, not what they could be. Pretending they'll ever go about things differently from their past history is as the saying goes, "asking a leopard to change its spots".
 
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blindpeser

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Nov 20, 2016
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shutyertrap said:
I absolutely agree, it's not hard in this day and age to create hype. But look at FarSight's track record, have they ever built up hype? When they did Kickstarters (please oh please never do one again) other than making the initial announcement, did they ever go out of their way to promote during the campaign? Any table release they've done, the brief video they'd do would only come out a few days prior to release, the rest of the hype was from this forum. Actually FarSight's campaign strategy was to hint at a table, let us foam at the mouth for a few weeks waiting on verification that we got it right on the first guess, and then everybody being excited for the remaining 2 weeks. They didn't release World Champion Soccer when it would have made the most sense, during World Cup. They didn't release Doctor Who when a new season premiered. I don't think they have ever taken advantage of riding the wave of synergistic hype. The only thing recently they have gone above and beyond to promote was the sale of tables prior to June 30th, and most of that hype was done by Arcooda and our BlahCade Pinball Podcast.

Look, Zen is putting on a master class on how to prime its customers for an imminent release. This forum has been buzzing in a way it hasn't in a very long time. As much as I'd like FarSight to learn a lesson or two, I also think they are stuck in their ways. We love them for what they are, not what they could be. Pretending they'll ever go about things differently from their past history is as the saying goes, "asking a leopard to change its spots".
Click to expand...

OK, I guess business decisions could be rethought. I don't really care if they get the maximum profit. Would be just a pity if SPA VR is good and nobody knows about it and the sales are poor. That way we probably do not see new VR stuff from Farsight soon. Zen did a similar thing on their latest VR release. Nobody saw the Universal pack coming. Now people maybe don't buy it, because their is a sound bug inside. Zen is doing a fantastic PR job on the Williams release. But they have to consider if a VR release is worth the effort. I wish they could create a hype for their VR releases as well...
 
lio

lio

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Jul 24, 2013
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I enjoyed SPA on Gear VR... more than PB FX2 VR actually because it had slightly better performance on my s7 edge.
I'll try the Rift version and if they don't mess it up completely I'm going to buy it.
I am excited for this but I have learned to manage my expectations so I'm not exactly hyped.
 
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barbul

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Jan 8, 2014
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On the SPA FB main page last announcement is from 6 july, no info about today VR release, and in my Country 6hr left to the end of the day and no sign of SPA VR on oculus store, twitch and so on... so quiet... maybe it's just another delay or something, i hope not, and i wish Them creazy profits from this release, so They can have will to make some TPA in VR.

Wysłane z mojego SM-G935F przy użyciu Tapatalka
 
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barbul

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Jan 8, 2014
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Pod said:
Cant see anything. Sure you're not looking at the gear vr version? Got a link?
Click to expand...
Yep, already downloading (3,47GB). I can't find in oculus app, but found in OS www & add 2 library.

Wysłane z mojego SM-G935F przy użyciu Tapatalka
 
P

Pod

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Aug 10, 2012
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Tried on the website. in the PC app and in the headset (OS) store. Not in any. What do you mean "OS www"?
 
P

Pod

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Aug 10, 2012
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First impressions.

You need a PA.com login. You have to enter it in VR which is a pain if you have randomised passwords (you should!) as you need to keep removing the headset unless you can memorise the entire password in one go. Thankfully this is a one time only issue. Once I'd logged in the menu stopped accepting button inputs (yay farsight!)

Reloaded

Menu seems ok. You get 500 tokens to start. Costs 50 tokens for one game. You can earn 60 every so often for free or you can buy them (I didnt check prices). You also earn 50 for getting a high score and you can win some by playing challenges and dailys. Star trek costs £9.99 just as it does in SPA but also 50 gold bars. You start with 0 gold bars and they cost 1000 tokens per bar. (Thats about 100 days of free tokens assuming you collect them all and never spend any).

Loaded Star trek LE. Turned on rumble and lowered the brightness. Clicked start game. Notification comes up saying its loading but never goes away. The game is essentially soft locked (yay farsight no.2)

Reloaded

Get back into star trek and finally get to play 2 games (60M and 99M). Was fun! Both scores are highscores so I'm still on my starting token amount (plus the freebie). Will play more later, need to cook some food.


TLDR - Was great fun once I'd gotten past the niggles! Not sold on the currency. Will most likely play using tokens until I run out and then just buy Star trek for real money.

Pod
 

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